During this analysis I will be attempting to pronounce several Japanese words and names. Viewer discretion is advised. My Neighbor Totoro is regarded as one of the most iconic pieces of Japanese animated film.
It is Studio Ghibli's third film and was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Even if you haven't watched the film, you will more than likely be familiar with the gentle giant that is Totoro, who has seen in... incredible success in the realm of merchandising. There are cuddly toys, stationery, phone cases, and even furniture. all complete with the Totoro motif.
Totoro merchandise was a huge financial benefit for Studio Ghibli. Despite Totoro's iconicity, however, his appearance in the film is fairly minimal. He doesn't appear for the first time until the 30 minute mark, retaining the mystery surrounding his character. In this video, I'm going to explain how the film depicts the experience of young children during a tough time in their family life through an exploration of the relationships within the Kusakabe family unit.
Miyazaki has often claimed that childhood is the happiest time in one's life, and this is portrayed through Satsuki and Mei's determination to save their stay happy when things take a turn for the worst. The story was heavily based on Miyazaki's own childhood when his mother was stricken by disease. This resulted in his family moving closer to a hospital. The novelisation of My Neighbor Totoro makes it clear that the mother is suffering from tuberculosis, and likewise Miyazaki's mother was ill with spinal tuberculosis.
He said it would be too hard hitting if the two protagonists were boys and not girls. Seeing as the animation process takes a lot of time looking at stills of the characters, it's understandable why this change was made. Another connection worth mentioning is that Mr. Kusakabe shares a very similar visual representation to the character Jiro from Miyazaki's 2013 film The Wind Rises.
Both characters look very similar to Miyazaki's father Katsuchi Miyazaki, both of whom were aeronautical engineers. It is also worth highlighting that all three father figures took care of their partners when they were unwell, showing just how much of a role model Miyazaki's father was. father was to him. My Neighbor Totoro was rejected by animation company Telecom in the early 1980s, however when one considers how much of a difficult film this must have been to pitch, its early rejection is understandable.
The film lacks complexity, there is no villain that needs to be stopped, thus creating minimal dramatic peril. It obviously was not going to capture the attention of large film production companies who are generally on the lookout for action-packed blockbusters or romantic dramas. Eventually Japanese production company Tokuma Shoten agreed to produce it under the condition that it would be a good film. condition that the film would be released alongside The Grave of the Fireflies.
One can imagine this must have been a challenge for Ghibli, given that they didn't have their reputation or global financial success back in the 80s. Yet this choice of pairing does also prove that Studio Ghibli were capable of creating masterpieces of both serious and light-hearted natures. Originally the film was intended to have one female protagonist instead of two, a six-year-old girl with red hair.
The decision to put the focus on two girls at different ages allows for a broader exploration of family as opposed to the traditional hero with a goal to overcome. Today, the film is set to be a film that is a little bit more of a family-oriented, To do this, Miyazaki encouraged his animators to observe children that pass by their office windows to ensure the realistic characterisation and animation of the girls. Mei for example is not your typical innocent cherub like other girls of her age are commonly portrayed in western films. She roars, cries, loves to pretend and throws tantrums.
She is a realistic child. Despite the realistic portrayal of the characters and setting, it collides with the fantastical world of the spirits. Around the location we see shrines and temples, including statues of foxes.
These statues are also known as kitsune, foxes that have supernatural powers such as the ability to transform. Kitsune are regarded as protectors of crops which is why they're typically found near fields and we actually meet some kitsune in Ghibli's 1994 film Pompoko. Shrines are typically known to be in dark, quiet and peaceful areas to create a spiritual omnipresence.
In the film's case, the shrines create a presence of the forest spirits, meaning that we can feel Totoro's presence without necessarily seeing him. When Mei tries to convince her family that she slept on a fat furry bowling ball, they aren't disappointed, irritated or even unwilling to investigate. They're perfectly content and in awe of their surroundings, despite Mei being unable to prove her claim. The giant Totoro resides in the mystical world amongst the camphor tree, where it is quiet and peaceful, a place of intense greens, flowers, plants and butterflies. Miyazaki believed that, quote, gods came from such dark places that they preferred to reside in peaceful places such as forests.
So is Totoro a god? Not exactly. A spirit undoubtedly, however, I would argue that Totoro is more comparable to the Buddha, a large cheerful figure known for taking afternoon naps. The film is set in an outer region of Tokyo before the massive urban expansion of the 1960s.
Humans were still living harmoniously amongst nature, unlike more environmentally conscious Ghibli films they would later produce such as Princess Mononoke. According to Miyazaki, Totoro was set in a simpler time before there was television and likewise there is no television set. in any of the houses we see. Gunter and Granny work in a rice field, and Sutsky remarks that they had a day off school because it was rice planting day.
Nowadays, rice picking is mainly dependent on agricultural machinery, but labour is an important ingredient to the film, as the two girls chip in with everyday work without complaint. A life with no television and plenty of chores to do would be a modern child's nightmare. but the two girls decide to remain brave and patient, helping their dad around the house whilst their mother is sick. The granny also acts as a substitute mothering figure, as she encourages and helps the Kusakabe family from the day they move in, right up until the end of the film where the girls reunite with her and Gunter.
Throughout the film, the two girls are determined to be fearless and strong through the stressful task of moving home, supported also by their father. The Kusakabe's house is more than just a traditional Japanese home though, as this will be the one that the girls will remember. a house of childhood.
They scream into dark rooms, encouraging any potential monsters to come out, come out wherever they are, and this bravery is encouraged by their father in the bathroom scene. When the girls are scared of the wind blowing through the house, he encourages them to laugh away the unnerving situation. Interestingly, the bathroom scene was a problem for the film's western distributors, Fox and 50th Street Film.
The distributors claimed that it would be hard for Westerners to understand this notion of families bathing together. Even though the father could have chosen to have an entire bathtub to himself, he shows his unity with his family by sharing in their experience. One of the most touching parts of the film is when Satsuki has her hair brushed by her mother. Satsuki displays a deep connection with her mother to the point of desiring to be her.
Her wish to have hair like her mother's alongside the proud smile she wears when her mother says, me are a lot like Satsuki, exemplifies this notion. We also see her rushing around making food for the family, including her lunch for school that her father admits he completely forgot about. Not only do we see Satsuki's desire to take after her mother here, but we also begin to understand the father's struggle of being a single parent. Throughout the ordeal however, Satsuki in particular remains patient and understanding.
she didn't get angry at her father for forgetting for example. When Satsuki is at school and her father is busy working, Mei is left to play alone where she meets the three Totoros. They consist of what I'm guessing is a big father Totoro and his two offspring, symbolically mirroring the father and his two daughters.
When Mei falls down the camphor tree and meets the big Totoro, the image of Alice falling down the rabbit hole from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland springs to mind. with the smallest Totoro somewhat resembling the white rabbit. At the end of the film we also see the cat bus also shares similarities to the Cheshire Cat with his huge smile. Her father later states that the Totoros are spirits of the forest and can only be seen when they want to be seen.
It could be argued that the woodland spirits wanted to be seen by Mei as she is seeking somebody to play with, something the father couldn't fulfill as he is too busy working. The two girls and their father later ask the spirits the following. Onega- Which could show that the Totoro's purpose is to help the three whilst their mother isn't present. As much as Satsuki enjoys playing the role her mother would ordinarily enact, this comes with a burden also. This is represented humorously when Mei shows up at her school, but also when Mei has to be carried by Satsuki in the rain as they wait for the father to come home, Mei being the symbolic representation of this burden.
At this point Satsuki is joined by Totoro. If we understand that the Totoro's appearances are deliberate then we can assume that he also came here in her time of need. Although the moment with Totoro and the umbrella is fairly iconic, Miyazaki has said that most people have misconceptions about what exactly Totoro's fascination with the umbrella is.
Perhaps he could be using it as a musical instrument in the rain? Maybe he thinks the umbrella helps him fly higher? Or maybe he just wants to be Mary Poppins? When a sandal is found in the river after Mei has run away, we feel a sense of immediate danger.
However, Mei is found by Satsuki in the cat bus so quickly that there is no real time to feel sad for her. Satsuki and Mei's reuniting brings to light that we are not concerned about the fate of these two girls, but we are perhaps more concerned about their separation, and beyond that, a concern for the breakup of the family unit. When they are reunited, things quickly fall back into place, and the two girls ride the cat bus home and reunite with Granny Anne. Gunter. The cat bus fading away rather than a visible exit represents that Satsuki and Mei's difficult time is coming to an end and they no longer need the assistance of the forest spirits for help and comfort.
At the end of the film we see a delightful collection of illustrations depicting the near future after the events of the story. We learn that the mother comes home, a new sibling appears and that the Totoros are spending time together but not once do we see the spirits and humans interact. This indicates that due to the re-emergence of the family unit The girls no longer need the presence of the Totoros, all living happily ever after.
Well, unless you believe some crazy conspiracy theory that Totoro is a god of death or something, I'll let you decide. Thanks for watching. We learned a lot about this film from a book titled The Cinema of Hayao Miyazaki, written by Jeremy Mark Robinson.
We already have a Kiki's Delivery Service video in the works, which will be out after I'm done with Black Mirror. If there are any other Ghibli films you'd like us to analyse, leave a comment below, where we will continue this discussion.